Mardan varsity wins honour with ranking

PESHAWAR: Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan (AWKUM) has been ranked 150th by Times Higher Education Emerging Economies Universities Rankings 2021.

A press release said the Times Higher Education (THE) on Wednesday announced the result of its Emerging Economies ranking, which includes institutions in countries or regions classified by the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE Group as “advanced emerging”, “secondary emerging” or “frontier”.

The ranking demonstrates the growing strength of secondary emerging countries, heavily driven by Pakistan, China, and Russia.

A record 606 universities ranked this year from 48 countries and regions, 14 per cent more than in 2020 (533), as 86 universities, including AWKUM, made their debut.

About 77 per cent of universities (10 out of 13) from Pakistan improved or maintained their previous ranking positions and AWKUM debuted at 150th.

China grabbed the top five positions while only two universities from Pakistan made their way to the top 150 universities worldwide.

Quaid-e Azam University Islamabad secured 105th position and AWKUM, an eleven years old university and competing for the first time, went straight to 150th position.

The Times Higher Education provides internationally acclaimed and trusted World University Rankings based on performance data.

Earlier this year, THE announced World’s Universities Ranking 2020-2021 and according to that, AWKUM was declared No 1 University in Pakistan and 510th in the overall world ranking (among 1527 institutions from 93 countries).

AWKUM Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Zahoorul Haq told journalists that based on research, Awkum was ranked 200th in world citation ranking. He added that the university is also ranked 24th in Asia (in 32 countries and 627 universities) and 3rd in South Asia (in 5 countries and 95 universities).

“This achievement indicates that our faculty is tremendously talented, dedicated and productive as teachers and researchers,” he added and said it is important to mention that participation in ranking enables an institution not only to brag but also to ascertain the areas that need to be strengthened. This is where the vision of the leadership takes the institution to new heights.